SC Collegium Recommends Justice S V Gangapurwala As Chief Justice Of Madras High Court

In the process, the collegium has recalled its earlier proposal to transfer Dr Justice S Muralidhar, Chief Justice of Orissa High Court as the Madras High Court Chief Justice.  

Justice Sanjay Vijaykumar Gangapurwala was elevated as Additional Judge of Bombay High Court in 2010. In December 2022, he was appointed as the Acting Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court after the then Chief Justice Dipankar Datta was elevated as Judge of the Supreme Court.

The Collegium added that Justice Gangapurwala's experience as Acting Chief Justice in the Bombay High Court would be useful for dispensing justice as the Chief Justice of Madras High Court. Further, since at present there was only one Chief Justice from the Bombay High court, Gangapurwala was fit and suitable for the appointment.

His experience of having served as acting Chief Justice in the second largest High Court in the country (with benches at Aurangabad and Nagpur and a seat also at Goa) during the last four months would be useful for him in dispensing justice as Chief Justice in the Madras High Court. Besides, presently, there is only one Chief Justice from the High Court of Bombay. Having regard to all relevant factors, the Collegium is of the considered view that he is fit and suitable in all respects to be appointed as Chief Justice of the Madras High Court., the proposal reads.